The European Union Reference Laboratory for Public Health on Antimicrobial Resistance in Bacteria
The European Union Reference Laboratory for Public Health on Antimicrobial Resistance in bacteria (EURL-PH-AMR) is one of nine European Union Reference Laboratories (EURL) for Public Health designated by the European Commission (EC).
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a major threat to human health around the world, in terms of deaths, burden of disease, hospital length of stay, healthcare costs and socio-economic impact. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the need in Europe for harmonisation and expansion of the capacity for outbreak detection of emerging infectious diseases, including those associated with AMR. The European Commission (EC) issued Regulation 2022/2371 on "Serious cross-border threats to health" which included the designation of European Union Reference Laboratories (EURL) for Public Health, one of which is in the field of Antimicrobial Resistance (EURL-PH-AMR).
The primary role of the EURL-PH-AMR is to provide support to the members of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and its associated disease networks, European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Network (EARS-Net) and European Antimicrobial Resistance Genes Surveillance Network (EURGen-Net).
The EURL-PH-AMR plays a crucial role in supporting National Reference Laboratories (NRLs) and National Expert Laboratories (NELs) of EURGen-Net and clinical microbiology laboratories (CLs) of EARS-Net, ECDC, and EC in addressing the cross-border threat to health caused by healthcare associated antimicrobial-resistant pathogens.
The overarching goals of the EURL-PH-AMR are to assess, develop and improve strategies for prevention and control of AMR in target priority pathogens.
The EURL-PH-AMR delivers support in the field of AMR in bacteria with relevance for public health, particularly in the following areas:
- Reference diagnostic testing and typing
- Provision of reference material resources
- External quality assessments (EQA) and proficiency testing (PT)
- Guidance on laboratory testing,
- Scientific advice and technical assistance
- Laboratory capacity building
- Collaboration and research
- Monitoring, alert and support in response to antimicrobial resistant bacteria outbreaks
- Training
The key focus of the support provided by the EURL-PH-AMR is to increase the capability and capacity of the members of EARS-Net and EURGen-Net, respectively, for provision of reliable and comparable microbiology laboratory data in the field of AMR.
The EURL-PH-AMR will target increasing network members’ capability and capacity, implementation of quality assurance and harmonisation of phenotypic testing and genotypic characterisation of AMR, and assist ECDC and network members in developing and implementing routines for detection of threats to health, risk assessment, preparedness, outbreak investigation and surveillance.
The EURL-PH-AMR is funded by the European Union's EU4Health Programme under Grant Agreement 101194806
Disclaimer: Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Health and Digital Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
The EURL-PH-AMR has been designated for a period of seven years under the coordination of ECDC.
To review our guidances, agreements and other information, visit the Guidance.
For inquiries and more information, please contact us on: EURL-PH-AMR@ssi.dk
The consortium undertaking the role and functions of the EURL-PH-AMR includes:
- Statens Serum Institut (SSI) - Denmark
- Technical University of Denmark, National Food Institute (DTU) - Denmark
- EUCAST Development Laboratory - Clinical Microbiology Region Kronoberg (EDL) - Sweden
